Bush trip: dam & quarry
Dec. 19th, 2010 06:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xenithPart 1 - Arriving
I strongly recommend (re)reading the previous post because it has the background information, and I can't remember what I said so I don't expect anyone else to.
Quotes in italics from Lifeblood of a Colony: a history of irrigation in Tasmania by Margaret Mason-Cox
So here is the group on the path. You can tell it is a path, because if it wasn't a path
there would be more rocks.
Also there are track markers :) Three different sorts in that photo.
The first stop. This, our guide tells us, is the quarry from whence stones came to build the dam.
And that's the dam. You can see both sides of it there.
[Lt Gov Eardley-Wilmot] had arrived to replace Franklin not long after the establishment of the probation system, and just at a time when a severe economic depression was beginning to grip the colony. The downturn in activity not only put a strain on the colonial government's finances, but severely reduced the expected demand for the labour of probation pass-holders, large numbers of whom were beginning to accumulate in the stations, along with those convicts still serving their primary probation.
On 29 December 1843 Major Cotton [the Deputy Surveyor-General] filed a report on the Elizabeth and Macquarie rivers, which gave a detailed account of the work in progress at the Long Marsh:
The work is an embankment 80 feet in height closing the gorge of the marsh, with a sluice through its base for the delivery of the water as required, and an escape for surplus water to be formed across a neighbouring saddle. The reservoir is calculated to contain when full 20,000,000 cubic yards of water. The Probation Party now consists of 279 men, of whom 70 are employed in barrack duties and in hospital, and 30 are feeble or disabled men unfit for much hard work, leaving 179 actually effective...
The party had spent nearly a year on the project, and although Cotton found them working willingly and cheerfully, "and doing as much work as an equal number of hired workmen", he calculated that the dam would take another two years to complete. He suggested that by increasing the party to 250 effective men, the dam could be completed by June 1845"
We're standing on the edge of one of the abutments.
Looking back from the edge towards the "river bank"
Some stupid people decided it would be a good idea to climb down. The camera doesn't pick up how steep it was.
But looking back up might give you a better idea.
There is a easier way down to the marsh.
Relatively easier. Actually, it wasn't as bad as it looked.
At the base of the dam. The first photo is from here too.
Eardley-Wilmot, under instructions from London ordering the colonial government to pay, or recover, the costs of convicts employed on works other than those for the benefit of the Imperial government, sent off a curt memo to the Colonial Secretary: "The party in Long March should be done away with immediately, as the Colony cannot pay for the party supplied from the Convicts"
The settlers pointed out that they had spent ₤650 on the construction of the barracks, surveys, and other matters connected with the dam, and were prepared to meet further expenses according to the original agreement. They considered the stoppage of work a breach of contract "which the Secretary for the Colonies could hardly sanction without shaking confidence in every instance of delegated discretion and authority".
For such discourtesy and reflections cast upon the integrity of the government the committee was rebuked by the Lt. Governor, who nevertheless acknowledged the justice of the settlers' claim upon the government, and explained the change in economic circumstances which had forced him to take such a decision. Though personally in favour of a general scheme of irrigation, as envisaged by Major Cotton, he confirmed the decision to remove the gang until such time as legislation to regulate works of this nature had been enacted, at which time the subject could be reconsidered.
That, our guide tells us, is untouched bushland, and what the area around would look like if it wasn't for forestry activities.
There was an attempt to restart works in 1846-1847,
The Lt. Governor [William Denison], through Bicheno, then had no choice but to state unequivocally where he stood on the issue, and in so doing gave the death-blow to the hopes of the settlers. Sir William let it be known that he had studied all the relevant papers and could not find that the government had ever pledged itself in any way to the completion of the dam, or that there was ever any evidence of a contract between the government and the gentlemen interested in the undertaking. Moreover, the government was being called upon to do all the work for the benefit of parties who owned land on the banks of the Macquarie River, while no advantage would accrue to it in recompense for the very large outlay which would be required.
There was a bit of interest in this: the corner (foundation?) of something and two bits of a broken "stone" with a cross on it. Purpose? I have no idea.
Obligatory setting the mood photo.
Grass, stones and scrubby bushes become a Site. Can you see it?
A bit easier to see here.
That's a wall of sandstone.
Just to give an idea of the scale.
I don't know what the purpose of the quarry was. It doesn't seem to have been used in the nearby settlement, unless it was all removed. But it'd be a hell of a place to cart huge stones out of.
Where old sandstone blocks go to die?
There was some speculation about what sort of draught animals were used to lug the stone out. I'd vote for human.
Back on the trail now.
The remains of the works at the Long Marsh--the dam abutments with century-old eucalypts growing from them, the foundation and diversion works, and the ruins of the barracks near the dam site--in their tranquil setting in the Tasmanian bush, are a lonely monument to the dreams of the settlers of the Macquarie for the improvement of their agriculture, and thus of their fortunes.
Streets signs at the intersection. Next stop -- town!
Part 1 - Arriving
Part 3 - Town
I strongly recommend (re)reading the previous post because it has the background information, and I can't remember what I said so I don't expect anyone else to.
Quotes in italics from Lifeblood of a Colony: a history of irrigation in Tasmania by Margaret Mason-Cox
So here is the group on the path. You can tell it is a path, because if it wasn't a path
there would be more rocks.
Also there are track markers :) Three different sorts in that photo.
The first stop. This, our guide tells us, is the quarry from whence stones came to build the dam.
And that's the dam. You can see both sides of it there.
[Lt Gov Eardley-Wilmot] had arrived to replace Franklin not long after the establishment of the probation system, and just at a time when a severe economic depression was beginning to grip the colony. The downturn in activity not only put a strain on the colonial government's finances, but severely reduced the expected demand for the labour of probation pass-holders, large numbers of whom were beginning to accumulate in the stations, along with those convicts still serving their primary probation.
On 29 December 1843 Major Cotton [the Deputy Surveyor-General] filed a report on the Elizabeth and Macquarie rivers, which gave a detailed account of the work in progress at the Long Marsh:
The work is an embankment 80 feet in height closing the gorge of the marsh, with a sluice through its base for the delivery of the water as required, and an escape for surplus water to be formed across a neighbouring saddle. The reservoir is calculated to contain when full 20,000,000 cubic yards of water. The Probation Party now consists of 279 men, of whom 70 are employed in barrack duties and in hospital, and 30 are feeble or disabled men unfit for much hard work, leaving 179 actually effective...
The party had spent nearly a year on the project, and although Cotton found them working willingly and cheerfully, "and doing as much work as an equal number of hired workmen", he calculated that the dam would take another two years to complete. He suggested that by increasing the party to 250 effective men, the dam could be completed by June 1845"
We're standing on the edge of one of the abutments.
Looking back from the edge towards the "river bank"
Some stupid people decided it would be a good idea to climb down. The camera doesn't pick up how steep it was.
But looking back up might give you a better idea.
There is a easier way down to the marsh.
Relatively easier. Actually, it wasn't as bad as it looked.
At the base of the dam. The first photo is from here too.
Eardley-Wilmot, under instructions from London ordering the colonial government to pay, or recover, the costs of convicts employed on works other than those for the benefit of the Imperial government, sent off a curt memo to the Colonial Secretary: "The party in Long March should be done away with immediately, as the Colony cannot pay for the party supplied from the Convicts"
The settlers pointed out that they had spent ₤650 on the construction of the barracks, surveys, and other matters connected with the dam, and were prepared to meet further expenses according to the original agreement. They considered the stoppage of work a breach of contract "which the Secretary for the Colonies could hardly sanction without shaking confidence in every instance of delegated discretion and authority".
For such discourtesy and reflections cast upon the integrity of the government the committee was rebuked by the Lt. Governor, who nevertheless acknowledged the justice of the settlers' claim upon the government, and explained the change in economic circumstances which had forced him to take such a decision. Though personally in favour of a general scheme of irrigation, as envisaged by Major Cotton, he confirmed the decision to remove the gang until such time as legislation to regulate works of this nature had been enacted, at which time the subject could be reconsidered.
That, our guide tells us, is untouched bushland, and what the area around would look like if it wasn't for forestry activities.
There was an attempt to restart works in 1846-1847,
The Lt. Governor [William Denison], through Bicheno, then had no choice but to state unequivocally where he stood on the issue, and in so doing gave the death-blow to the hopes of the settlers. Sir William let it be known that he had studied all the relevant papers and could not find that the government had ever pledged itself in any way to the completion of the dam, or that there was ever any evidence of a contract between the government and the gentlemen interested in the undertaking. Moreover, the government was being called upon to do all the work for the benefit of parties who owned land on the banks of the Macquarie River, while no advantage would accrue to it in recompense for the very large outlay which would be required.
There was a bit of interest in this: the corner (foundation?) of something and two bits of a broken "stone" with a cross on it. Purpose? I have no idea.
Obligatory setting the mood photo.
Grass, stones and scrubby bushes become a Site. Can you see it?
A bit easier to see here.
That's a wall of sandstone.
Just to give an idea of the scale.
I don't know what the purpose of the quarry was. It doesn't seem to have been used in the nearby settlement, unless it was all removed. But it'd be a hell of a place to cart huge stones out of.
Where old sandstone blocks go to die?
There was some speculation about what sort of draught animals were used to lug the stone out. I'd vote for human.
Back on the trail now.
The remains of the works at the Long Marsh--the dam abutments with century-old eucalypts growing from them, the foundation and diversion works, and the ruins of the barracks near the dam site--in their tranquil setting in the Tasmanian bush, are a lonely monument to the dreams of the settlers of the Macquarie for the improvement of their agriculture, and thus of their fortunes.
Streets signs at the intersection. Next stop -- town!
Part 1 - Arriving
Part 3 - Town
